FILE PHOTO: Jeffrey Epstein is seen in this image released by the Department of Justice in Washington, D.C., U.S., on December 19, 2025 as part of a new trove of documents from its investigations into the late financier and convicted sex offender Jeffrey Epstein. U.S. Justice Department/Handout via REUTERS THIS IMAGE HAS BEEN SUPPLIED BY A THIRD PARTY/File Photo
The Epstein files controversy continues to raise questions about President Donald Trump's connection to the late billionaire financier and convicted sex offender Jeffrey Epstein. Trump reportedly severed ties to Epstein around 2004, and according to Michael Cohen — the president's former personal attorney and fixer — Trump never talked about Epstein during his years at the Trump Organization.
During a July 20 appearance on MS NOW (then MSNBC), Cohen — a former Trump ally turned scathing critic — recalled, "I fell into Trump's orbit around 2005, but I became part of the Trump Organization as the executive vice president and special counsel in 2007. From the time that I started to the time that I finished in 2018, I actually never heard him mention Jeffrey Epstein at all. I never saw Jeffrey Epstein in the office…. I never heard Jeffrey Epstein on the phone or even call into the office. There was no relationship, from the time I started at the org to the time that I left."
But questions are still being asked about Trump's relationship with Epstein before 2003.
In an article published on January 2, The Nation's Jeet Heer examines Epstein's connection to Mar-a-Lago before Trump banned him from his South Florida resort.
"Trump's claim to have dropped Epstein is partly true but obscures a crucial fact: that he and Epstein were close friends from the 1980s until their break at some point in 2003," Heer explains. "Epstein had been barred from the spa at Trump's Mar-a-Lago resort in 2003, and the two men seemed to have a more definitive break in 2004. The exact circumstances of the break remain mysterious, since Trump has offered conflicting accounts, sometimes claiming that he was mad that Epstein 'stole' an employee from Mar-a-Lago and sometimes referring to competition the two men had over real estate in 2004."
Heer points to a "damning report" published by the Wall Street Journal on December 30, noting that it "makes clear that Mar-a-Lago was crucial to Epstein's sexual predation — a fact that was well-known by Trump's inner circle long before Epstein was charged with any crime."
"Based on this report," Heer observes, "the question becomes: What did Donald Trump know about Jeffrey Epstein's predations and when did he know it?.... In 2000, Ghislaine Maxwell, Epstein's most important accomplice, recruited a Mar-a-Lago employee Virginia Giuffre, to work with Epstein. Giuffre was raped by Epstein, who also sexually trafficked her to his friends."
According to WSJ's reporting, Trump's second wife, supermodel/actress Marla Maples, warned, in the mid-1990s, that there was something "off" about Epstein.
"While Trump and his supporters will claim that the fact Trump barred Epstein from the Mar-a-Lago spa in 2003 exonerates the president," Heer writes, "the facts of the case make Trump's culpability much more evident. Trump had every reason to know before 2003 that Epstein was sexually mistreating Mar-a-Lago employees, some of whom were under the age of consent…. Trump may not be criminal culpable in this situation. It would certainly be difficult to prove he's guilty of a crime beyond a reasonable doubt. But in judging politicians, criminal guilt is not the only standard to use."
Read Jeet Heer's full article for The Nation at this link.